Sox host 'historic' letter-of-intent ceremony for 5 ACE products

Chicago White Sox general manager Ken Williams described the letter-of-intent signing for five high school students at U.S. Cellular Field on Thursday night as a "historic" event.

The scholarship recipients are Blake Hickman (Iowa) and Shane Brown (Oakland University in Michigan) of Simeon High School; Chris Stevens and Shaquille Cockrell (both Alcorn State) of Walther Lutheran High School, and Devin Pickett (Iowa) of Marion Catholic High School.

All five student-athletes participated in the Sox's Amateur City Elite (ACE) program that has provided potential stars ages 13-18 from the inner-city to play baseball on a traveling team against highly competitive groups. The ACE program aims to change the downward trend of participation of African-Americans in baseball.

"In the position I’m in, sometimes you forget the peripheral things that you can affect, and you get caught up in the on-field product and equate your successes to that," said Williams, a product of the Police Athletic League (PAL) program in East San Jose, Calif. "But we’ve got some great people in our community relations, public relations and marketing departments, and years ago this was a commitment we made to the community, we made to ourselves to be responsible to more than just the product we put on the field.

"And it’s turned out to be very heart-warming to have days like this. And we’ve had a few days like this where we can aid young men along in signing their letters of intent to go to college and get a chance, a chance to do something special in life."

Family members, coaches and other influential people celebrated the signing, as well as several Sox staff members.